Lashoff called up to Boston

In an entirely expected move, Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced before Wednesday night’s game that the club has recalled 22-year-old defenseman Matt Lashoff from the Providence Bruins (American Hockey League) and placed defenseman Andrew Ference on injured reserve. Lashoff has played in 15 games this season for Providence and has posted 3-10=13 totals and 21 penalty minutes. Ference is expected to be 6-8 weeks with a broken right tibia.

Lashoff is considered a highly-skilled offensive defenseman and potential power play specialist with skills and instincts tailor-made to quarterback the power play. He hasn’t been gritty enough, productive enough or defensively responsible enough, however, in coach Claude Julien’s system to stick with the Big Boy B’s.

But the kid still has a world of potential on a team with limited blueline depth, and this will constitute another opportunity for Lashoff to show his stuff before Chiarelli is forced to venture out into the unpredictable trade market for another puck-moving top-line defenseman.

“We’ll see how things go in practice and we’ll see if [Lashoff gets in the lineup],” said Julien. “He’s one of those guys who should move the puck and offensively he’s very gifted. We told him when he went down [to Providence] to work on the other part of his game defensively,” said Julien. “He needs to win battles and compete in his own end, and the rest of it will follow. We’ll look at him practice and see how he does, and who knows…eventually we may see him in there.”

Here’s a little piece of youtube evidence that shows off the offensive skill set of Lashoff, who wasn’t in the Garden early enough to potentially crack Wednesday night’s lineup and likely wouldn’t have suited up above Shane Hnidy anyway: